QUALITY OF LIFE OF CANCER PATIENTS DURING THE CHEMOTHERAPY PERIOD

The objective of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to evaluate the quality of life in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The participants were eighty patients of both genders, 18 years of age or older, with a confirmed cancer diagnosis, undergoing chemotherapy after the second cycle, who had voluntarily agreed to join the study. We used the WHOQOL-Bref instrument, validated in Brazil, through interview, during the period from April to June of 2008. Comparison between domain scores presented a significant difference due to health self-evaluation. The highest scores were in the group with better assessment of their own health. The Psychological domain reached the highest scores, unlike the others, who evaluated the Environment domain best. The results suggest that health self-assessment can be a reliable predictor of quality of life in these patients, therefore it is important to further studies on this topic.